


Fear of Fire

by Finaiarel



Series: Puzzle-June 2019 [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Burn Wounds, M/M, episode 51, warehouse fire episode, yami is referred to as the spirit of the puzzle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 04:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19054837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finaiarel/pseuds/Finaiarel
Summary: The fire had caught and begun to consume everything, but he could see nothing in the darkness.Not every reunion is a happy one.





	Fear of Fire

**Author's Note:**

> For Puzzle-June 2019, day one: "Reunion."

The spirit of the puzzle had never feared fire.

He knew it, deep in his soul, even if his memories of what made him _him_ were gone. 

All was darkness around him once again. His connection with his vessel had shattered like the puzzle when Keith had slammed it against the dueling stand. 

He remembered this darkness. He remembered it even if he remembered nothing else. 

The darkness had been his home for so long. He hated it. Vast, yawning, and all-consuming, the spirit knew this suffering as he knew nothing else. The time he had spent basking in the light of his vessel’s warmth and kindness had dulled the memories, but they were still there. They always were.

His vessel feared the dark, but what the spirit feared was shadow.

Shadows lurked inside this prison, curling tendrils of darkness different from the all-consuming black. These were intelligent, sentient beings, and they were hungry. They would feed on whatever light they could find until there was nothing left. 

Sometimes he controlled them, and sometimes they controlled him. There had been a time, shortly after Yugi solved the millennium puzzle, where he had not been sure if it was one way or the other. He had fed many souls to the shadows then, but they were never sated. Only his connection with the boy had driven them back, his light too pure even for the shadows. 

The darkness was close at hand, clinging to him like a second skin within the confines of his soul room. He could feel its glee, its amusement that he had once more been reduced to nothing more than its plaything once again.

He should be panicking at the thought of being lost to the shadows, but inside he was calm. 

He could feel it - his partner’s light.

Even here, in the all-consuming dark of the puzzle, he could feel it. Bright. Warm. Loving. Brave. Kind. 

Yugi would solve the puzzle. He could feel it.

He could feel the light of his partner’s soul, and it was bright enough to let the spirit seal out the dark.

He could feel every click of the puzzle’s pieces sliding into place like a ghost’s touch. His awareness of the outside world was narrowed down to that singular feeling - the feeling of warmth and reassurance he felt from his other self as the boy labored to put the puzzle back together. Desperation, anxiety, worry, fear, but most of all - love. His young vessel loved him, and more than anything, he did not want to be apart. 

The spirit could agree with that. 

The puzzle came together quickly. Both of them were singularly focused on the task, the spirit’s memories of the outside world much too fresh to let him succumb to that same helpless state he had been in before the puzzle’s solving. Now, he urged the pieces to join themselves together in union with his vessel, both of their hearts working together as one to see each other again. 

And when the puzzle came together at last, the spirit was blindsided by the situation at hand. 

Fire. The acrid smell of chemicals and burning wood. Their throat felt raw, each breath of smoke racing down into lungs struggling to keep up with the adrenaline-pounding beat of their heart in their chest. 

Everything was bright, and the heat was _incredible_. The spirit tried to take over immediately, but even in his weakened state, the spirit’s light was determined to protect him. The gold of the puzzle was burning hot in their hands, the pain of holding onto it almost unbearable. But his little vessel was determined not to leave him.

 _’Yugi… You have to go!’_ he urged his host through their link, the little vessel’s mind already fading. He would not be able to stay conscious much longer, the fumes he had inhaled leading to a lack of oxygen and his mind slowly shutting down. 

”I won’t… leave you…” his little one murmured aloud, hanging onto the searing hot puzzle with everything he had left in him, his grip like iron despite his weakness. There was a loud crash behind them, part of the warehouse’s roof collapsing in and crushing the solid-vision system on Keith’s side. Jounouchi and Honda were trying to get Yugi to let go of the puzzle as well, but the spirit had no way of reaching out to them. They had no way of knowing they were both in trouble.

He could feel panic rising inside him, the emotion a vague echo of what it felt like when he was in possession of their body. He could do nothing like this. He could not take possession of their body without great effort when Yugi was resisting him like this, and even then, what could he do? If he forced Yugi to let go of the puzzle, he would lose his control over the boy anyway. 

He paced angrily within his soul room, the return of the puzzle to its rightful state allowing light to seep in from the torches which had been relit by his master’s efforts. He had never felt so helpless to save Yugi as he did then. 

What could he even do in this situation?

He could feel the two older boys touching the puzzle as they tried in vain to pry his partner’s fingers from the gold. Though Yugi had lost consciousness moments ago, his grip was tight, and the gold was practically fused to his hand at this point. The spirit knew that the boy would not let go. He was too stubborn, and he cared far too much. 

He had never been able to reach out to any of the others before, but in that moment, the spirit was desperate. He threw himself against the walls of his prison, trying desperately to reach _one_ of them so that he could help them free him.

And then - he felt it. A brief flash of an unfamiliar consciousness. Rough, warm, hurting, and protective. He barely had time to think about it before he threw an image of the peg to Jounouchi’s mind, and reminded him of something they had learned in their physics class just days before - the concept of a lever and fulcrum.

That was all the strength he had, trapped there in that eternal abyss. With that, his consciousness faded along with Yugi’s, and the darkness swallowed him whole.

____________________________

The next time the spirit came to consciousness, they were no longer in the burning warehouse. Yugi was asleep. The spirit could feel it as soon as he checked. 

Not wanting to wake the boy, the spirit instead went to check and see if he was in his soul room. It was quiet in the hall between doors, the darkness swallowing up either end. The only safe haven was the pool of light surrounding the two adjunct doorways. 

Yugi’s door was cracked, a few toys visible from where the spirit stood just outside. He pushed past and into the brightly lit room, carefully stepping over a few blocks and a stuffed cat.

The boy was curled up on the giant marshmallon in the corner, his back turned to the spirit. 

He walked over and settled on the edge of the soft, jelly-like creature. It shifted under his weight and jostled Yugi, but the smaller of the two newly-anointed kings of games did not turn over. The marshmallon was still, its ridiculously childish eyes and its terrifying, sharp-toothed maw shut. It must have been asleep. 

“Yugi…” the spirit started, unsure what to say in the face of what had just happened. He looked over at his partner, at his round, cherubic cheeks and the hands wrapped in bandages. He was wearing a hospital gown and looked rather miserable. Violet eyes slowly turned to him, and after a moment, Yugi’s face softened.

“Other me… You’re okay,” he whispered softly, his lips chapped and burned from the heat of the fire. They spread into a small, painful smile, and Yugi sat up a bit to face the spirit more fully. His little vessel had seen better days by far, and guilt struck the spirit in the heart like a lance.  
“I’m fine, partner,” he murmured, his own voice rough and crackling with pain as he spoke. He looked down, and where before he had been wearing their school clothes and his body had been as it was this morning, he was now dressed the same as his partner, with the same wounds and bandages. “It’s you I am worried about… I can’t believe you risked your life for me. That was reckless, little one. You promised me you would always put yourself first.”

Yugi’s face tightened, and he averted his eyes guiltily. He would not make eye contact with the spirit. “Don’t try to make me feel guilty. I was not going to leave you there, other me. I didn’t want to lose you.”

“Losing me would have been better than dying there with me,” the spirit said, eyes flashing with anger at the very thought. He could not bear the thought of harm coming to his compassionate and kind-hearted little vessel. “You could have been killed, Yugi!”

“I wasn’t, though!” Yugi snapped, turning his gaze back to glare at the spirit. He picked up a pillow and chucked it at him, pouting angrily. “I wasn’t. I solved the puzzle and Jounouchi got us out… I couldn’t live with myself if I had left you there all alone.”

The spirit let the pillow hit him in the shoulder, the cushion falling uselessly in his lap. He sighed, and set it to the side. “Nevertheless, in the future, you cannot risk yourself for my sake. I could not bear it if you came to harm because of me, Yugi.”

He waited for Yugi to respond, but the boy remained adamantly silent. The spirit inched closer, and opened his arms for his vessel. It took a moment, but eventually Yugi looked his way and slid into his arms. 

He settled back against the wall, the marshmallon shifting under their combined weight. Yugi’s back was to his chest, and the spirit took the opportunity to run his bandaged hands through Yugi’s freshly-washed hair. The nurses must have cleaned the soot and grime from his body. 

“You must promise me you will not put yourself in danger for my sake, Yugi.”

Yugi remained silent, and the spirit did not have to be able to read his mind to know his answer to that. He sighed and closed his eyes, resigned to it. He could not fault his vessel the desire to protect him - it was only what he felt for Yugi reflected right back at him.

They would protect each other, then. To whatever end. 

From then on, the spirit was not afraid of fire. 

But his vessel was.


End file.
